


The Infamous Iron Man

by katling



Series: Ironstrange Bingo 2019 [1]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Not Steve Friendly, Secret Identity, Sort Of, Stephen is a somewhat unreliable narrator, diverges somewhere at the end of Iron Man, he doesn't like SHIELD, in a weird way, it's an alliance of necessity, not compliant to anything after Iron Man, on his part anyway, or the Avengers really, sorry - Freeform, sorry about that, the prompt went sideways on me, these tags are a mess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 20:13:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18557011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katling/pseuds/katling
Summary: Iron Man is a villain. Sort of. It all depends on who you ask. Tony Stark, on the other hand, is a very interesting man. Stephen Strange, a reluctant member of the Avengers definitely agrees with that and when he finds out the truth about Iron Man... well, that just makes things even more interesting.Written for the Ironstrange Bingo 2019 for the square: Enemies to Lovers. Though it kind of took a side turn on me so it's not strictly enemies to lovers.





	The Infamous Iron Man

**Author's Note:**

> This is pretty much only canon compliant up to the fight with Stane in Iron Man and then it goes sideways. Coulson and SHIELD never learn the identity of Iron Man. They obviously have their suspicions but Tony's been pretty successful, thanks to the connivance of his friends, in making them think he's absolutely not Iron Man. I'm not sure how Tony avoided the palladium poisoning but let's just say that he found a way.
> 
> And just a few key points:  
> 1\. Coulson didn't die during the invasion but Iron Man still flew the nuke through the portal and was rescued by the Hulk but they didn't land near Thor and Steve. By the time anyone got near, Tony had recovered and the Hulk, understanding that people can be thought of as bad while not actually being bad, let him go.  
> 2\. With no Stark money, SHIELD set up the Avengers Initiative as a slightly separate organisation that is funded by a number of groups and people (and Tony) and is headed by Coulson  
> 3\. Tony does also provide gear and weapons to the Avengers Initiative but there's an actual contract for that.  
> 4\. SHIELD did fall as per CATWS but the Avengers Initiative survived that.  
> 5\. I'm shifting the events of Doctor Strange to a bit earlier than in canon. Stephen joins the Avengers in the wake of CATWS when they start recruiting to make themselves a bit more acceptable ie. no, we're not really just full of SHIELD people  
> 6\. I've shifted Peter Parker's whole story arc a bit earlier. He's still underage so he's more of an adjunct member of the Avengers but by signing on, he gets training and Tony's gear and protection for Aunt May and his friends.  
> 7\. Although I'm a bit unfriendly to Steve here, it's not personal. Stephen is a bit of an unreliable narrator but mostly it's a case of Steve not having an anchor in the 21st century and the ground seeming to constantly shift under his feet. So he tends to take a stand and not budge because it makes him feel less lost and adrift.

Stephen Strange leaned back in his chair and frowned at the report he was reading. There had been another attack by Iron Man the previous week and once again, the report indicated that the man who had been left trussed up for the police in an admittedly rather hilarious way was neck deep in selling weapons, drugs and sometimes even people on the black market. As a result, law enforcement had issued another one of what was rapidly becoming their normal response to Iron Man – thundering public denouncements of the unknown supervillain that were accompanied by a notable lack of actual action behind the scenes.

Stephen snorted. He could understand where the various law enforcement agencies were coming from. Every time Iron Man took down one of these despicable individuals (never killed, it must be said, but always captured and left contained for the police to arrest and question), they were able to subsequently take down reams of smaller groups who had been affiliated with them, usually as a result of anonymous tips that came in. Crime was down, which meant the general public were happy and if the general public was happy and crime was down, then politicians were happy, which meant it wouldn’t suit law enforcement to rock the boat, even if Iron Man was a criminal.

Stephen looked up and watched Steve Rogers pace back and forth across the room, his own copy of the report Stephen had been reading in his hands. From the scowl on Steve’s face, he didn’t share the same opinion as the law enforcement agencies. Stephen wasn’t surprised. Steve had a very black and white view of the law and… well, Iron Man never missed an opportunity to tweak Steve’s nose when he tangled with the Avengers.

And unfortunately for Steve, his fellow New Yorkers seemed to like Iron Man more than their supposed favourite son. Admittedly Iron Man _had_ been the one to ultimately save the day when the Chitauri had invaded by flying the nuke through the portal over Tony Stark’s tower. He’d fallen back through, all but lifeless, and been caught by the Hulk but before anyone else could get to him, the Hulk had roared him back to life and he’d taken off. But his almost-sacrifice had been caught by any number of people with cell phones and New Yorkers had never quite forgotten that it had been a supervillain who had saved their lives.

Of course, New York’s absolute favourite son was Spider-Man and the young man behind the mask never looked like he wasn’t living the dream. He was a superhero, an Avenger and he had a precious, coveted internship at Stark Industries.

Stark Industries and their boss, Tony Stark, was another sore spot with Steve. Just after he’d returned from Afghanistan, Iron Man had saved Tony Stark’s life but the man constantly claimed he didn’t know who Iron Man was or why he’d saved his life. Not everyone believed him but the idea that Tony Stark was Iron Man had been thoroughly scotched. Tony Stark was often seen out and about when Iron Man was up to his tricks. 

But Steve refused to believe there wasn’t some kind of connection between the two men and he pointed to the new tech that had come out of Stark Industries and stirred the pot constantly until Stark had squashed that by simply admitting that he had some of the Iron Man armour, left behind in his factory after the Stane incident. He’d been taking it apart and reverse engineering it. He’d then grinned rather cheekily and said that if Iron Man had a problem with that, he could take it up with the Avengers.

It still hasn’t changed Steve’s mind and these days, that had become the background noise of the Avengers’ lives. Steve was an admirable man but by god, was he stubborn! Unfortunately for him, not even Natasha had been able to discover any connection between Stark and Iron Man.

“Steve,” Sam Wilson said patiently. “Relax.”

Steve came to a halt and scowled at him. “How can I relax when Iron Man is still out there attacking people?”

“On the bright side, he’s attacking _bad_ people,” Clint said from where he was lounging in his chair with his feet on the table.

“That’s not the point, Clint.”

Sam exchanged glances with Natasha and the red-haired spy spoke up. “Steve, let it go. We don’t have time for this anyway. We have to get ready for the Stark fundraiser.”

Steve’s scowl deepened as he tossed the report on the table. “Why are we going to this stupid thing?”

“Because last year, Tony Stark personally donated over $5 million dollars to the Avengers Initiative out of his own pocket,” Natasha replied, the absolute picture of patience. “If we want him to keep doing that so we can continue to go about our business, we need to make nice with him.”

“We shouldn’t need to pander to him,” Steve snapped. “He should donate it without all this rubbish.”

“He does,” Natasha replied. “The invitations were issued to us without any expectations or strings attached. Hill was the one who said we have to go.”

“Why?” Steve demanded.

“Because we need to make nice with him.” Natasha raised an eyebrow. “Besides, don’t you want to know why Iron Man saved his life? The only way we’re ever going to find that out is if we get close enough to him that he trusts us.”

Steve sighed and his shoulders slumped. “Fine.”

That seemed to be the signal to end the meeting and Stephen escaped with a sigh. He had to admit that he wasn’t looking forward to the party either. This would be the first time he would be mixing with New York’s high society since his accident and he was feeling just a little bit nervous.

Three hours later, Stephen had reassessed his opinion. He was actually enjoying himself quite a bit and only part of it was because the gathered society people were being surprisingly polite. Mostly it was because Stark had spent the better part of the party so far running rings around Natasha and poking at Steve, both of whom were starting to look more than a little constipated and annoyed. It was probably a bit petty of him to be enjoying that but watching Tony Stark work was something of a treat.

“Well, well, Doctor Strange.”

Stephen turned to find the man in question standing beside him. “Dr Stark.”

Amusement bloomed in Stark’s eyes. “I haven’t been called that in a while.”

Stephen raised an eyebrow. “You have six doctorates and you don’t get called by your title?”

“Business people tend to place more importance on business than academics,” Stark said with a shrug. 

“That’s a pity.”

Stark chuckled and looked out at the party going on around them. Stephen noted that while it looked like Stark was drinking, he was fairly certain that the liquid in his glass was apple juice, not champagne. 

“I see Rogers still has that big ol’ stick up his butt about me,” Stark said with a grin. “And Natasha needs to learn some new tricks. She’s a tad bit heavy-handed.”

“I think Steve was born with that big ol’ stick up his butt,” Stephen said dryly before he decided he was probably supposed to stick up for his teammates and help them. “And are you sure Natasha was being heavy-handed?”

Stark’s eyes narrowed then he shrugged it off. “Rogers isn’t still trying to convince everyone I’m Iron Man, is he?”

“No, but he is still convinced that you two are connected somehow,” Stephen replied.

Stark rolled his eyes. “Of course he is. He’s never forgiven me for not being my father. Any chance he can find to think badly of me, he’ll take it.”

Stephen made a noncommittal sound. Actually Stark had a point there and they were very lucky that Stark had never let slip that bit of information. They’d had enough trouble convincing people that Steve wasn’t suffering from some sort of PTSD after waking up after seventy years on the ice, the last thing they needed was people getting the idea that Steve was paranoid or delusional. The Avengers Command and before them, SHIELD, had been careful to treat Stark with kid gloves after the debacle of Steve and Stark’s first and only formal meeting. 

“I understand Stark Industries is moving into prosthetics,” he said, changing the subject.

Stark gave him an amused look then nodded. “Seemed like a good idea, all things considered.”

And that was another sore point between Steve and Stark. When Steve had realised that his old buddy James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes was still alive and was HYDRA’s brainwashed assassin, the Winter Soldier, he’d nearly gone off the rails in trying to get him back. It was Barnes himself who had circumvented that. He’d turned up on Stark’s doorstep, having remembered, albeit only vaguely, his very significant role in the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark and wanted to confess to the man himself. Stephen had often wondered if the shattered and broken Barnes had kind of hoped that Stark might kill him.

But Stark hadn’t, even after finding out that Steve had known about the Winter Soldier killing Howard and Maria Stark and had, as far as anyone could tell, never planned to tell Stark about that. It had soured relations between the Avengers Initiative and Stark and that was the other reason they were here tonight, even though no one had been foolish enough to mention it anywhere near Steve. But they needed to try and smooth over that horrendous mistake that Steve had made. Stark had never outright thrown it in their faces nor had he pulled his funding but access to his tech and upgrades to their gear had become considerably more difficult. It didn’t affect Stephen as much as the others but he still knew it was happening.

The most remarkable piece of tech Stark had produced in the last year was the new arm Barnes was sporting. It was a thing of beauty and according to Barnes in the one and only interview he’d agreed to thus far, it was infinitely superior to the HYDRA arm he used to have. Unfortunately, that was the only time Steve had seen Barnes since he’d turned himself in to Stark. Barnes had refused to see Steve and it was eating away at him. Stephen had often wondered why and decided he might try to find out.

“And how is Sergeant Barnes?”

“You could ask him,” Stark replied.

“He hasn’t exactly been around.”

“You could come by.”

Stephen frowned. “Hasn’t he refused to see us?”

“He’s refused to see Rogers,” Stark replied. “He hasn’t given any orders regarding the rest of you so you’d have to ask him if he wants to see you.”

Stephen blinked. He hadn’t realised that Barnes’ refusal was so specific. “Does Steve know this?”

Stark shrugged. “I assume so. He was told.”

“Huh.”

Stark snorted. “Don’t tell me. He’s been saying I’ve refused all access to Barnes?”

“Something along those lines.”

“Typical,” Stark said with a roll of his eyes. “The man just can’t stop demonising me.”

“Maybe it’s the facial hair?” Stephen suggested innocently.

He felt unaccountably delighted when he managed to startle a genuine laugh out of Stark and then he smirked at the man’s mock offended look.

“Excuse _you_ ,” Tony said indignantly, though there was a faint grin playing over his lips. “Does he treat _you_ like that?”

Stephen smoothed one scarred hand over his own facial hair and slapped a smugly superior look on his face. “Of course not. He _knows_ I’m not Iron Man.”

Tony’s laugh was bright and delightful and made him look utterly gorgeous, something that was clearly noted by the people who looked over at them at the sound. Stephen suddenly wanted to smack himself upside the head for even _thinking_ that because he surely didn’t need the complication but in the end, he didn’t have to try and hide anything from Stark. Just as Stark got himself back under control, the CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper Potts, materialised at his side. She gave Stephen a small polite nod and murmured something in Stark’s ear. He immediately sobered and he and Potts had a quick low-voiced conversation before Potts hurried away.

Stark turned back to him with a smile that, having seen the real thing, Stephen recognised as an entirely fake press smile. “Sorry to cut this short, Dr Strange, but I’m afraid something has come up that needs my attention.”

Stark nodded to him and hurried away, quickly joined by Potts, Hogan and Colonel Rhodes. Strange watched them go but didn’t miss Natasha sidling up to stand next to him.

“Well done,” she said, sipping at her glass of wine.

“I’m not certain what you’re congratulating me for,” Stephen said dryly.

“He likes you,” Natasha replied. “That’ll be helpful.”

Stephen fought back a grimace. He didn’t much care for Natasha’s habit of viewing everyone as a mark to be manipulated and he’d put a halt to her games with himself very early on. Not that she’d stopped trying to manipulate him but these days all he needed to do was to raise an eyebrow at her and she’d stop. She was never apologetic about it but he didn’t expect that. As it turned out, the Masters of the Mystic Arts knew all about the Red Room, having countered several attempts over the years by Black Widows to infiltrate them. Stephen had read everything they had on the Black Widows and he knew that Natasha had been thoroughly dehumanised by the Red Room. So he didn’t hold her behaviour against her, if anything he was actually mildly impressed that she was as human as she was. Not that he would allow her to play her games too broadly though.

“I am unlikely to encounter him much,” he said. “We move in very different circles.”

Natasha made a noncommittal noise. “He likes you,” she repeated. “Stark has a tendency to make such meetings happen if he likes someone.”

Stephen felt a fillip of surprised delight at that news though he was careful to hide it well. “Perhaps,” he said dismissively. “Have you attempted to visit Barnes?”

Natasha quirked an eyebrow at him and he felt smugly pleased that he’d managed to surprise her. “We’ve been denied access by Stark.”

“ _Steve_ has been denied access by _Barnes_ ,” Stephen replied. “Barnes hasn’t given his opinion on the rest of us.”

Natasha drew in a sharp breath and understanding dawned in her eyes. He then saw a hint of irritation and smothered a laugh. So Natasha had been taken in by Steve as well. How interesting. It seemed that the Black Widow had chinks in her armour after all. Stephen filed that away in his mind. He had no reason right now to use that against her but he remembered what he’d read. It was not out of the realms of possibility that he might need to do so in the future.

*****

As it turned out, Natasha was right about one thing – Stephen did find himself running into Stark more than he’d thought possible given he rarely went anywhere in the US other than the Sanctum in New York, the Avengers Compound, which stood where the Triskelion had once been in Washington DC, and wherever their various missions had been. Stark certainly wasn’t coming to the Sanctum but he was suddenly more present at the Compound than he ever had been before, whether it was delivering gear and tech upgrades personally or being more amenable to meeting with Coulson. Not that those meetings were any more productive than when Stark _wasn’t_ attending them, if Coulson’s expression was anything to go by. Stark also seemed to find it necessary to oversee the Maria Stark Foundation’s rescue and reconstruction work more than he ever had before, apparently because he’d given them new equipment and wanted to see it in action. While it was true he _had_ given them new equipment, he’d never felt the need to be on the ground before.

And somehow each time, he found a reason or a way to speak to Stephen. Sometimes Stephen wasn’t quite sure how Stark had even known he was there, let alone found him but... there he was. Stephen might have grumbled about that but… he liked Stark. Or Tony as he’d become after their fourth meeting. Tony was wildly intelligent, devastatingly funny and sarcastic and pretty damn easy on the eye as well. As an added bonus, he always made Steve look like he was sucking lemons. Stephen actually did like Steve… at least he did when Steve wasn’t being Captain America. Captain America had, as Tony had put it, a big ol’ stick up his butt. Steve Rogers, on the other hand, was a decent man who was still struggling with the 21st century. Stephen had a suspicion Tony was aware of that but was still holding a bit of a grudge over Steve’s lie.

Despite his sour expression every time he set eyes on Tony, Steve had never said anything to Stephen about spending time with him. He wasn’t under the impression that Steve was feeling any friendlier to Tony, it was more that Steve was hoping Stephen would find some kind of evidence that Tony knew who Iron Man was. 

It was nearly a month after their first meeting before Tony actually asked him out on a date. Stephen almost hesitated but finally said yes. He could see that Tony suspected his motives weren’t pure and Stephen… well, he didn’t know how to tell Tony that it wasn’t true. Yes, the other Avengers might want Stephen to find out whatever he could but he really didn’t give a damn. After all, _he_ didn’t need the Avengers. He had joined as more of a calculated move to ensure that magic users would be viewed as heroes than because he was invested in the Avengers Initiative. Or rather, he approved of the _ideal_ behind the Avengers and he was willing to work with them while they maintained that ideal but he just wasn’t sure this group was going to do that long term. Steve’s near descent into blind obsession over his friend had been a large red flag.

So when he turned up for their date, Stephen kept the topics of conversation away from anything Avengers related and they ended up laughing uproariously as they traded stories of mutual acquaintances that they both considered to be asses. After dessert and coffee, they agreed to walk back towards the Sanctum and Stephen found himself taking Tony’s hand. He was aware of the startled look he got from the other man but Tony didn’t pull his hand away and when Stephen glanced over, he was captivated by the soft, almost shy smile that was curving Tony’s lips.

One date became another… and another… and another until even the dimmest of gossip columnist had caught on to the fact that Tony Stark and Stephen Strange were dating. Stephen was grateful for his portals at that point as it enabled him to evade the paparazzi. Tony just laughed, being long used to the paps, though he did move their dates to more discreet locations.

After six months, Stephen had to admit that he was quite enjoying his life. His work at the Sanctum kept him agreeably challenged, the Avengers were still stable and working within their limits and his relationship with Tony had moved along to the point where Stephen was contemplating the possibility of living together. Even Iron Man’s attacks had lessened, though Stephen wasn’t sure whether that had anything to do with the Avengers increased scrutiny of his past attacks or whether Iron Man had achieved whatever goals he’d been aiming for.

Stephen probably shouldn’t have mentioned that in the team meeting the previous month because almost as if he’d jinxed them, Iron Man began to step up his attacks. This time, however, his targets weren’t his usual sort of criminal. In fact, he seemed to be targeting Stark Industries across the Middle East, Europe and Africa. SI shipments were attacked and destroyed only to then find out that there were no records of the shipments in the first place. And for the first time ever, he didn’t seem concerned about collateral damage – there had been some deaths. Whenever he was seen in public, Tony looked grim and unhappy and he refused to say anything other than ‘No comment’ to the journalists. When he was with Stephen, he still refused to speak about it, instead distracting Stephen in any number of ways. Stephen didn’t fight it. He understood Tony’s need to do things for himself after his kidnapping in Afghanistan and he would respect that.

Things came to a head… as things are wont to do… after a rather pitched battle with Iron Man in Nebraska. An entire Stark Industries compound had come under attack and by the time the Avengers got there, two buildings had been reduced to rubble and a third was blazing with a conflagration that Stephen knew would leave everything inside utterly destroyed no matter what they did. 

Iron Man fought far more viciously than he usually did and yet, at the same time, he seemed a little distracted. Stephen almost felt that something about this attack was some sort of endgame and that Iron Man was annoyed they were interrupting. His attacks against the Avengers were harder and harsher than normal and yet they weren’t killing shots. Instead, the attacks tended to throw them a fair distance away or keep them trapped for a period of time as Iron Man concentrated on destroying various buildings.

His distraction did, however, work in their favour and eventually Clint was able to get an arrow past Iron Man’s defences. The arrow exploded and sent Iron Man hard into the ground, the eye slits on the helmet and the repulsors in the palms of the gauntlets going dark. For a moment, the armoured man didn’t move and the Avengers raced towards him. Steve’s expression of triumph was almost disturbing and Stephen was genuinely worried the leader of the Avengers was going to do something he might well regret later. 

Steve never got a chance to do anything however. They weren’t far away when the armour lit up again and Iron Man shot up into the air. He paused to hover above them and his head cocked with something Stephen swore was amusement.

“Nice try, birdbrain. Better luck next time,” he said in his mechanical voice.

Iron Man gave them a jaunty salute and shot off into the air, though not before Stephen noticed that the side of the armour had been partially smashed in and there was blood oozing from the gash.

“Dammit!” Steve yelled and Stephen thought he might just hurl his shield after the departing supervillain.

“He’s injured,” Stephen said, hoping to calm the man down. “We can send out an alert to all hospitals, medical centres and doctors to keep their eye out. He’s going to need medical attention given what I saw.”

Steve’s hands clenched into fists then he let out a breath and the anger flowed away. He gave a nod to Stephen. “Do it.”

Stephen walked away to activate his comms but even as he communicated with the command staff, he kept an ear out for Steve’s orders. Unfortunately, Steve’s desire to inspect all the buildings in an effort to find out why Iron Man wanted to destroy some of them was stymied by the very polite but very adamant Stark Industries staff who arrived within minutes of the end of the battle. In the end, they were forced to return to their Compound without knowing what Iron Man had been after. After the briefing was over, Stephen portalled over to New York, wanting to make sure Tony wasn’t stressing out too much about the damage to his business.

The moment the portal closed after depositing him in Tony’s workshop, he was essentially smacked in the face with two things. The first was the damaged Iron Man armour standing in the middle of the room and his first thought was that he was very annoyed that Steve was apparently right and Tony knew who the man in the armour was. Then he saw the second thing – the injury in Tony’s side that was still bleeding sluggishly as Tony sat frozen in the act of cleaning it.

Tony was Iron Man.

They stared at each other in almost complete silence, only the sound of the bots servos breaking the silence as DUM-E, U and Butterfingers looked between the two of them, their bobbing motions indicating their worry and uncertainty. Finally, Tony licked his lips and raised his chin in a defiant gesture.

“Alright, so what now?”

Stephen actually stopped and considered that. He knew what he ought to do – he ought to contact the authorities and turn Tony in. That, however, is not what he actually did. 

“That needs proper medical attention,” he said, almost in a delaying move.

Tony snorted. “JARVIS has access to the entire internet’s worth of medical knowledge.”

Stephen sighed and walked forward, plucking the pad Tony was using out of his hands. He knelt down beside Tony and continued cleaning the wound, concentrating hard to keep the trembling of his hands to a minimum.

“I’m an actual doctor,” he said as he worked.

“You’re an Avenger,” Tony replied and he sounded rather nonplussed, which Stephen rather approved of. He liked being unpredictable.

“I am.”

Tony fell silent and Stephen glanced up after a few seconds and saw that Tony was staring at him with a confused frown.

“Why?” Stephen asked. “At first you were just attacking criminals who deserved to be arrested. You never killed anyone and never did any major damage. Why change? And why attack your own company?”

Tony was silent for a bit longer and Stephen kept himself busy treating the wound in Tony’s side. As it turned out, it wasn’t as bad as he’d thought when he’d seen the damage to the suit in Nebraska. It wasn’t deep, just messy, and while he couldn’t manage the stitches it actually needed, he knew a very handy spell that would work better than physical stitches.

“Barnes,” Tony finally said.

Stephen glanced up, a little confused. “What about him?”

“I’ve been developing this technology that might help him with his triggers,” Tony said. When Stephen frowned, he elaborated. “The Winter Soldier is… I don’t know. Conditioning? A second personality? Not sure just yet. His shrink and I are still working that out. But he has these triggers. A series of Russian words that turn him into the Winter Soldier.”

“Right,” Stephen said with a small shudder. Poor bastard. Even though Barnes had broken free from HYDRA and come in from the cold, he still wasn’t safe from his own mind. “This technology?”

“Yeah,” Tony replied. “I call it BARF. Stupid name, I know, but it stands for Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing. It… allows you to actually relive a memory from the outside, is it were. The idea is to examine the memory and try to divorce the associations with it.”

Stephen was silent for a moment. “You made it for yourself.”

It wasn’t a question but Tony answered as though it was. “Yeah.” He smiled wanly. “Unfortunately, you have other demands on your time and sleeping with you is the only other way I’ve ever found to stop the nightmares.”

“I’m flattered,” Stephen said dryly then he sighed and paused in his ministrations long enough to look Tony in the eye. “It’s mutual, you know.”

Tony’s smile was small but genuine. “Anyway, after consulting with Barnes’ shrink, we’ve been trying it on him to see whether he can… dissociate the words from the conditioning. He was having a bit of trouble focusing at first and one of the memories we saw…” 

He broke off and stared at the wall for a long moment. Stephen finished cleaning the wound on his side then with a few quick gestures he stitched it magically and sealed it so there was little risk of infection. He then reached for the bandages to add another layer of protection. 

Tony had been watching what he was doing and now he spoke again. “J? Can you throw that still up?”

“Of course, sir,” came the dry British voice of Tony’s AI. Stephen usually enjoyed his snark-fests with Tony and JARVIS but now wasn’t the time.

An image appeared as a hologram not far away. Stephen paused in his actions to look at it with a small frown. From the angle, it appeared that Barnes had been in the room, perhaps acting as a bodyguard. There were a number of other men in the room but Tony indicated a large, bald man at the back, talking with Alexander Pierce, who had been outed as HYDRA during the whole Winter Soldier mess. The bald man looked vaguely familiar but Stephen couldn’t put a name to him.

“Obadiah Stane,” Tony said quietly, aware of who Stephen had been frowning over.

Stephen sucked in a shocked breath. Tony had told him about Stane’s betrayal of him and how Iron Man had appeared and rescued him. One day very soon, Stephen wanted the real version of that story.

“He was HYDRA?”

Tony shrugged unhappily. “Apparently. Anyway, Barnes remembered the names of a few of Stane’s other cronies in SI. Some of them we’d already rooted out after Obie… Stane’s death but there were a few who were still there. They’d been stealing weapons that were still stockpiled, awaiting destruction because you can’t just go out into the desert and blow them up as a whole.”

“Shame. The explosion would be quite spectacular,” Stephen said, drawing a small laugh out of Tony.

“Yeah, but people like the EPA get upset when you blow up potentially toxic materials without taking the proper precautions.” Tony ran a hand down his face. “I thought I’d destroyed or contained all the weapons and here they were being sold right under my nose. Again.”

Stephen reacted to the pain in Tony’s voice without even thinking. He rose and drew Tony into his arms. The other man was stiff for a moment then he relaxed against him and Stephen heard the soft huffs of breath that told him that Tony was struggling with his emotions. He didn’t say anything about that and just held on.

“This is not your fault any more than Stane’s operations were your fault,” he said firmly.

“I should have dug deeper,” Tony said, his voice muffled.

“You told me how deep you dug,” Stephen countered. “You went further than anyone expected you to, even the FBI and the rest of the governmental alphabet soup.”

He could feel Tony struggling to find a counter to that and he pulled away just far enough to look Tony in the eye. “You are not responsible for every ill in the world, not even every ill within Stark Industries. Do you blame Pepper for not noticing this was happening?”

Stark looked indignant. “No, of course not!”

Stephen arched an eyebrow. “Why not? She’s the CEO. If you should have known about Stane then shouldn’t she know about these people?”

It was probably a little unfair to use Pepper in this way but he knew the high esteem Tony held her in – rightfully so too since she was perhaps one of the most frighteningly efficient people Stephen had ever met. Part of him wanted to introduce her to Christine but the idea also terrified him. Those two women would probably take over the world given half a chance.

“I…” Tony sagged back into his embrace. “I just…”

“I know,” Stephen replied. He frowned as he considered everything he knew and had seen in this new light of Tony being Iron Man. “She knows, doesn’t she? That you’re Iron Man.”

Tony chuckled. “Of course she does. She was there when we killed Stane. So do Happy and Rhodey.”

Stephen sighed and shook his head with amusement. “I should have known. They did seem remarkably unconcerned about Iron Man.”

“Rhodey and Happy do a lot of covering up for me,” Tony admitted. “So does Pepper from the business side.” He wrinkled his nose. “Iron Man was why we… well, not split up since we were never actually together but it’s the reason why we never happened.”

“From a purely selfish point of view, I’m relieved,” Stephen said.

Tony was silent for a moment. “So what are you going to do?”

“Insist that you call me in the future when you’re injured so I can do something about it properly,” Stephen replied.

Tony pulled away and stared at him in shock. “You’re… not going to arrest me? Or turn me in to Rogers?”

“The Masters of the Mystic Arts have a different view of justice to most people,” Stephen replied. “I don’t agree with all of it but until recently, you have refrained from killing people, your collateral damage is less than ours and I can’t argue that the people you’ve been going after have deserved it.” He paused and smirked. “I’ve also been enjoying watching Steve turn interesting shades of purple every time you and Iron Man are the subject of conversation.” He paused again and his smirk deepened. “Also, it’s nice to have actual proof of the Black Widow’s inadequacies.”

Tony stared him for a moment before starting to laugh. “I thought they were your teammates,” he said between giggles.

Stephen sighed but there was a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “They are but they’re teammates of necessity, nothing more. I believe in the ideal of the Avengers, not necessarily all the people involved.”

Tony’s giggles died down and he looked thoughtful. “Gotta say I agree with you there and just between you and me, so does Barnes. He’s… so wary of his apparent bestie that even I’m almost worried.”

“When did that start?” Stephen asked, pulling Tony into his arms again, smiling when he came willingly.

“After we told him that Steve lied to me.”

“Interesting,” Stephen said, intrigued about what that meant. He set it aside for now. “So… how much fun do you think we could have annoying Steve if Dr Strange were to bring the infamous Iron Man in from the cold and rehabilitate him?”

Tony went still. “You think anyone would believe _I_ could be a hero?”

“You already are,” Stephen said quietly. “You saved New York. If the reasons behind your more recent attacks were explained… there would always be those who would insist you’re a villain but most people have already noticed that you’ve been going after criminals and you’ve generally not been one for killing.”

“Rogers would never accept me as a hero,” Tony said, his voice bitter.

“Rogers is the field leader. He doesn’t run the Initiative,” Stephen replied. “And Bruce would love to meet you. He says the Hulk keeps badgering him about the Tin Man he saved.”

A smile appeared on Tony’s face. “Yeah, I’d like to meet both of them actually.”

“So?”

Tony was silent as he thought and Stephen simply waited. Then Tony looked up at his with a wicked smile. “So exactly how were you planning on rehabilitating me, Dr Strange?” he said in a flirty tone. 

“I’m sure I can come up with some ideas that won’t get us condemned for perversion,” Stephen said with a laugh as he pulled Tony close. “But what we do privately is our own business.”


End file.
